Pause for Progress

A year before I started my coaching certification, I was listening to a podcast from The Life Coach School on throwing away your to-do list and she gave an analogy that stuck with me, so much that I shared it in my leadership training and to help teams create winning strategies for business performance. Ironically, I could not recall the episode being about throwing away the to-do list because I was so focused on the concept of being more efficient and productive with my life.

Fast forward to today, where I have completed my certification, launched my coaching practice and continued to teach business leaders this concept, which I call Pause for Progress. The basic premise of the concept is that we are often moving through life with what we believe is consistent action, and that we believe if we stopped, we will lose momentum or slow down our progress, when I teach that exactly the opposite can be true. The analogy that Brooke shared was about riding a bike to reach your destination, and you are pedaling away, going as fast as you can, and if you would just stop and get off the bike and into the car, you would reach your destination so much faster. But, we are often so focused on the action we are in, that we fail to see that there are other paths or opportunities to achieve our results, often faster and more efficiently.

I have taught this concept to dozens of teams over the last two years, helping them to create stronger leadership actions through prioritizing their time and being focused on the entire journey of goal achievement, including the importance of pauses. When we start to embrace the pause, we can discover opportunities that we did not see when we were in constant motion - think about the difference between being the driver and the passenger in a car - how often have you marveled at what you notice when you are the passenger and are not in a state of action? The importance of being intentional with your pause cannot be undervalued - when we take pauses without intention, some may call it buffering, others procrastination, but the outcome is the same - we do not use the pause with intention and just end up staying exactly where we are, albeit with a little distraction thrown in! Pausing with intention takes practice - and probably a few failures along the way - but it allows us to go further in the long run.

The best part about learning to pause is the realization that you can use it in all parts of your life - personal relationships, health and wellness, professional roles and financial goals are just a few examples of how taking an intentional pause can improve your outcomes in each area. Learning to pause with intention taught me how to change my future and I am so grateful for the opportunity to teach others how to create their future by taking time to pause.

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